For more than a decade it has proved to be an extremely successful recipe: take one fiery Scottish chef, fold in 11 big-name restaurants and several million pounds and the result is a concoction that has turned Gordon Ramsay into a globally recognised brand.

But yesterday it emerged that the formula may not be quite as lucrative as it once was for the chef, who appears to be having trouble with a different sort of F-word - his finances.

According to accounts filed yesterday, his main company, Gordon Ramsay Holdings, has breached its banking covenants - promises made to lenders to secure a loan. Ramsay and his chief executive Chris Hutcheson, who is also his father-in-law, have had to promise to help the company pay its debts if necessary.

The company controls Ramsay venues at the Claridges and Berkeley hotels, together with the chef's eponymous restaurant on the Royal Hospital Road, Maze in Grosvenor Square and Ramsay's pub in Narrow Street in London's East End.

While the company revealed climbing sales and profit, GRH says in a note to the accounts that it "has breached some of its financial covenants" and is in talks to ensure its loan agreements continue. "The group has held discussions with its bankers about its future borrowing needs and is looking to agree terms in this connection," it says. The company says the talks are "progressing positively".

GRH has a £10.5m banking facility with Royal Bank of Scotland. At the time of the accounts - August 2007 - it owed its banks £3.4m, but that figure is now out of date and may have risen sharply.

Ramsay may be quick to lose his temper, but his company is often slow to produce accounts. The latest set run until August 2007 and were filed six months after the deadline. They cover the year before the credit crunch set in and before his investment banker clientele started to see bonuses and expense accounts cut.

The previous year's set of accounts went into Companies House last autumn - 16 months after the final deadline, making them two and a half years out of date. The tardiness led to a fine. The latest figures, however, were signed off by Ramsay and Hutcheson only last week.

In what accountants say is an unusual move, Ramsay's holding company has lent £4.4m to his venture in the US, even though it is not a subsidiary of the company and it has not paid any of the £30,000 interest due on the loan. The chef has outlets in New York and Los Angeles.

The holding company has also granted loans to Ramsay and his father-in-law, of £80,000 and £530,000 respectively. In a complex arrangement, the two men have also given personal guarantees of £1.6m and £500,000 to secure bank loans.

One accountancy expert expressed surprise at the arrangement. "It is unusual to have loans to directors and I am surprised that amount of money has been lent to the US to a company that does not appear to be a subsidiary."

He added: "It looks like they have expanded a lot, and done it by increasing bank debt in the UK at a time when the economy has problems."

A spokesman for Ramsay yesterday failed to return calls to clarify the position.

The accounts also show the restaurant empire owes its suppliers about £5m.

Ramsay, said to be the highest earning chef in the world with a fortune estimated at £60m, appears to have granted himself a pay rise, taking his salary from £845,630 to £1,117,819. The bulk of his earnings come from TV deals on both sides of the Atlantic, cookery books and licensing arrangements to use his name.

On Tuesday Ramsay, who lives in Wandsworth, was awarded two Michelin stars for his first French restaurant - Gordon Ramsay at Trianon, in Versailles - becoming the first British chef to be awarded two stars for a restaurant in France and taking his total to 12.